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The Valley of Memories (Hardcover)
October 10th 1963, a Dutch teenage girl is sent away to Ghana by her resentful mother to marry a man she has met only once and who is more than twice her age. Arriving at the airport in Accra, a whole new world unfolds for this young girl. At first, she is shocked and disappointed by the things she sees in this new country she is to call her home. To her Ghana is hot, humid and dirty but then she meets the warm and welcoming people of Ghana and starts to open up to the country, culture and its people.
Her new husbands job takes her to some of the most remote areas in Ghana from Accra to the Northern, Upper East and Volta Regions where she repeatedly has to build a home with the meagre resources her husband and herself have available. Whilst building her homes and family, she encounters the most fascinating, emotional, funny, unbelievable and sometimes scary experiences.
This is a story about a young girl coming of age and finding love and happiness under the most unusual circumstances. The story will take the reader on a very vivid and colourful tour of life in post-colonial Ghana and gives the reader a history lesson about one of the most interesting periods Ghana has gone through after gaining independence from Britain and trying to build a strong and independent nation.
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The Bittersweet Pill of Politics: My Memoirs
The Bittersweet Pill of Politics chronicles the author’s experiences in Ghana’s political landscape and reveals intriguing themes.
“The passion, clarity, detail and narrative power with which Amma writes her memoirs, which are inextricably interwoven with the political odyssey of her inimitable brother, late Prime Minister Kofi Busia, through the 1950s and 60s make her story classic”. – H.E. J.A. Kufour, President of the Republic of Ghana (January 2001 – January 2009)
“The Bitter Sweet Pill of Politics shows unparalleled courage exhibited by a woman whose passion for democracy, unquenchably desire and thirst for political power for her political tradition. The book also discusses how she actively and passionately played substantial roles in the governance structure of her country. She agrees with Maimonides, a Jewish Philosopher, that ‘The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision’. Her resilience is extraordinary and legendary”. – Yaw Osei-Amoako, Manager, Election 2016 situation Room, NPP; Former Chairman, NPP, Toronto, Canada
“By the time she is narrating the memoirs of her life in The Bitter Sweet Pill of Politics, Amma Bame Busia has become the matriarch of the legendary Busia family. Her focus is on her brother, Kofi Busia, Prime Minister of the Second Republic, whose life as she captures in the vivid narrative would seem to have more of the bitter than the sweet bit of the political pill. But she paints a more rounded picture of him than can be found anywhere else. Her narrative encompasses far more than her own interesting life story. She fills many holes in the story of Ghana’s political history. – Elizabeth A. Ohene, Writer, Columnist
₵200.00 – ₵250.00The Bittersweet Pill of Politics: My Memoirs
₵200.00 – ₵250.00 -
New Currency: A Historical Novella
New Currency: A Historical Novella celebrates Akan social norms and values, particularly the “wonderful feeling of togetherness” and communal living, uniquely associated with the extended family system and invites the reader to be culturally sensitive and to worry about the Ghanaian culture degradation.
Apart from capturing the chilling, historical realities of the 1979 demonetisation, it successfully regains and celebrates the otherwise fading, but precious extended family values.
In the book, the seasoned author chronicles some aspects of the harrowing military rule of 1979, and narrates the ordeal of a woman about to lose an entire lifetime savings. Specifically, it recounts the widespread commotion and hardships associated with the introduction of a new monetary currency in Ghana from March 13–26, 1979.
The historical novella, set in Sunyani, the Brong-Ahafo regional capital in the same year, captures the widespread public despondency and turbulence associated with the exercise.
The book provides some insight into the period of the country’s history for adults who lived through the turbulence of 1979 as a necessary reminder; and to the present-day youth some awareness of the happenings then.
The thrilling lime green-looking book with yellow and white title inscription on the cover, and thinly opaque adinkra symbols – Mpatapo (knot of reconciliation) and Sesa wo suban (change or transform your life), reflects the theme of the book published by Smartline Publishers.
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Saro
On a visit to the coast of Marina, Lagos, Siwoolu and his young family are lured by a traitor to a grand merchant ship where they are captured by slaveholders masquerading as traders. On the way to the new world, they are rescued by abolitionists on a British naval ship and sent to Freetown, a haven for freed slaves.
They settle in their new home, grow their family, and become successful merchants, trading goods between Freetown and Eko. Dotunu, Siwoolu’s wife, falls in love with another man and is caught in a love triangle. But their lives are upended again when they hear that the kingdom has selected the traitor as king. Siwoolu, content with his new life, yet fearful of a curse that lurks in the shadows, refuses to return, but Dotunu is determined to keep the traitor from the throne. She turns to their son, Oșolu, who is running from his own demons, to seize the throne that is rightfully theirs.
Saro is a multigenerational tale of betrayal and restitution, love and war, inspired by true events that will take the reader from the rocky terrain of Abeokuta and the burgeoning city of Lagos to the lion mountains of Freetown and Hastings of Sierra Leone from the 1830s to the 1850s.
₵110.00Saro
₵110.00 -
From Dar es Salaam to Bongoland: Urban Mutations in Tanzania
The name Dar es Salaam comes from the Arabic phrase meaning house of peace. A popular but erroneous translation is ‘haven of peace’ resulting from a mix-up of the Arabic words “dar” (house) and “bandar” (harbour). Named in 1867 by the Sultan of Zanzibar, the town has for a long time benefitted from a reputation of being a place of tranquility. The tropical drowsiness is a comfort to the socialist poverty and under-equipment that causes an unending anxiety to reign over the town. Today, for the Tanzanian, the town has become Bongoland, that is, a place where survival is a matter of cunning and intelligence (bongo means ‘brain’ in Kiswahili). Far from being an anecdote, this slide into toponomy records the mutations that affect the links that Tanzanians maintain with their principal city and the manner in which it represents them.
This book takes into account the changes by departing from the hypothesis that they reveal a process of territorialisation. What are the processes – envisaged as spatial investments – which, by producing exclusivity, demarcations and exclusions, fragment the urban space and its social fabric? Do the practices and discussions of the urban dwellers construct limited spaces, appropriated, identified and managed by communities (in other words, territories)? Dar es Salaam is often described as a diversified, relatively homogenous and integrating place. However, is it not more appropriate to describe it as fragmented?
As territorialisation can only occur through frequenting, management and localised investment, it is therefore through certain places – first shelter and residential area, then the school, daladala station, the fire hydrant and the quays – that the town is observed. This led to broach the question in the geographical sense of urban policy carried out since German colonisation to date. At the same time, the analysis of these developments allows for an evaluation of the role of the urban crisis and the responses it brings.
In sum, the aim of this approach is to measure the impact of the uniqueness of the place on the current changes. On one hand, this is linked to its long-term insertion in the Swahili civilisation, and on the other, to its colonisation by Germany and later Britain and finally, to the singularity of the post-colonial path. This latter is marked by an alternation of Ujamaa with Structural Adjustment Plans applied since 1987. How does this remarkable political culture take part in the emerging city today?
This book is a translation of De Dar es Salaam à Bongoland: Mutations urbaines en Tanzanie, published by Karthala, Paris in 2006.
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Infinite Roots
“I must tell you my history,” Baba would roar, “the history you learn at school is not better than that which I have to tell you. My history concerns you directly, it is who you are, what you are, and what you’re going to become.”
“…woven in an unbroken thread of prose…in a complex, digressive narrative that is like a set of Chinese boxes (or those Russian Matryoshka dolls), one laid inside another.” — Literary Review
Infinite Roots follows the multi-generational story of a Ghanaian military family, composed through the eyes of a young daughter learning about her history and culture through the many stories of her parents and elders. This autobiographical novel spreads out across the 60s and 80s Ghana as the military family journeys from Wa to Tamale to Accra to Kumasi to Takoradi to Ho and more. As the young girl grows, she also begins to share her own re-tellings as her elders once did.
“…it is an incredible survey of Ghanaian traditions, customs, superstitions and beliefs, as well as social and political history and the emergence of female education.” — Lee Oliver
₵80.00₵100.00Infinite Roots
₵80.00₵100.00 -
Peri-menopause: The Trip of a Woman!!
Perimenopause is a very trying period in a woman’s life. Its effects and challenges affects today’s woman Socially, Physically, Emotionally and Sexually.
In this practical and succinct book, Pastor Anita has distilled key facts and information that teaches women and men on how to handle these difficult menopausal challenges and go on to live happier enjoyable lives.
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In the Company of Men
Harper’s Bazaar: Best Book of the Year
Boston Globe: Best Book of the Year
Ms. Magazine: Best Feminist Book of the Year
Words Without Borders: Best Translated Book of the YearDrawing on real accounts of the Ebola outbreak that devastated West Africa, this poignant, timely fable reflects on both the strength and the fragility of life and humanity’s place in the world.
Two boys venture from their village to hunt in a nearby forest, where they shoot down bats with glee, and cook their prey over an open fire. Within a month, they are dead, bodies ravaged by an insidious disease that neither the local healer’s potions nor the medical team’s treatments could cure. Compounding the family’s grief, experts warn against touching the sick. But this caution comes too late: the virus spreads rapidly, and the boys’ father is barely able to send his eldest daughter away for a chance at survival.
In a series of moving snapshots, Véronique Tadjo illustrates the terrible extent of the Ebola epidemic, through the eyes of those affected in myriad ways: the doctor who tirelessly treats patients day after day in a sweltering tent, protected from the virus only by a plastic suit; the student who volunteers to work as a gravedigger while universities are closed, helping the teams overwhelmed by the sheer number of bodies; the grandmother who agrees to take in an orphaned boy cast out of his village for fear of infection. And watching over them all is the ancient and wise Baobab tree, mourning the dire state of the earth yet providing a sense of hope for the future.
Acutely relevant to our times in light of the coronavirus pandemic, In the Company of Men explores critical questions about how we cope with a global crisis and how we can combat fear and prejudice.
₵85.00In the Company of Men
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Highest Lows, Scattered Peaks
I have been told by many that I have managed to put into words, things they have only managed to feel. Never express in words.
This book is to let you know that it is okay to feel negative emotions strongly. It is okay to be confused, angry, sad and just plain old upset with life. But don’t stay negative. Don’t stay upset. Get it all out, and then move again.
My goal was that after writing this, even if you cannot relate to them all, you will find one piece that is yours. You will find one piece that sounds like it was written just for you.
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Clearing Your Mental Deck
A lot of people are constantly on a quest to find the secret to achieving self-actualization, which is a term synonymous with success in life. The reality is that, success in life is firstly, a product of how you think and then secondly, of what you do. Your thoughts determine your action. We become what we think about. We manifest physically and constantly behold our minds. That is why this book, Clearing Your Mental Deck, has been put together to help you truly concentrate on arriving at the most important attributes that help every human attain their greatest desires. These attributes are considered by many people as the most important qualities that help us, not only to become successful, but also attain self-actualization.
₵65.00Clearing Your Mental Deck
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Oxford Street, Accra: City Life and the Itineraries of Transnationalism
In Oxford Street, Accra, Ato Quayson analyzes the dynamics of Ghana’s capital city through a focus on Oxford Street, part of Accra’s most vibrant and globalized commercial district. He traces the city’s evolution from its settlement in the mid-seventeenth century to the present day. He combines his impressions of the sights, sounds, interactions, and distribution of space with broader dynamics, including the histories of colonial and postcolonial town planning and the marks of transnationalism evident in Accra’s salsa scene, gym culture, and commercial billboards.
Quayson finds that the various planning systems that have shaped the city—and had their stratifying effects intensified by the IMF-mandated structural adjustment programs of the late 1980s—prepared the way for the early-1990s transformation of a largely residential neighborhood into a kinetic shopping district. With an intense commercialism overlying, or coexisting with, stark economic inequalities, Oxford Street is a microcosm of historical and urban processes that have made Accra the variegated and contradictory metropolis that it is today.
“Oxford Street, Accra offers a fresh portrait of a rising African metropolis by one of the most original and skilled critics of the African condition. Deeply researched and packed with detail and bold in scope and analysis, Oxford Street, Accra is a unique addition to the growing body of work on contemporary African Urbanism. This extraordinary book shows the extent to which the future of urban theory might well lie in the global South.” – Achille Mbembe, author of Critique de la raison négre.
KEY SELLING POINTS:
- Oxford Street, Accra is a must-buy as an invaluable companion and compass for both newcomers and returning visitors to Accra.
- Oxford Street, Accra was chosen as one of the ‘UK Guardian’s 10 Best City Books of the World in 2014.’
- Oxford Street, Accra was also the Co-Winner of ‘The Urban History Association’s Top Award in the International Category For Books Published About World Cities in 2013 – 2014.’
- Oxford Street, Accra contains an encyclopedic knowledge of the City of Accra, tracing the city’s evolution from its settlement in the mid-seventeenth century to the present day.
- The book offers a microcosm of historical and urban knowledge of the making of the city that have transformed Accra into the sophisticated metropolis that is it today.
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Notes on Amma Darko’s Faceless
This book, Notes on Faceless, is intended as a study guide for students of Amma Darko’s novel, Faceless. Readers of Faceless go back again and again to this novel because it makes them feel and think about many issues in the book that relate to what happens around them. A good work of fiction allows us to imaginatively participate in what it means to be part of human society. Fiction “holds up a mirror” to us about life. It is therefore important to be able to understand and explain, as well as becomes more alert to how literature works. This book aims to help you do so, focusing on Faceless.
Notes on Faceless discusses what Darko does in Faceless and how she does it: the plot of the story, its setting, characterization, theme and style. Like every other field of study, literature has a special vocabulary that is used by all good students of the subject. Therefore, while discussing the essential elements in Faceless (i.e. plot, setting, etc.), this book also introduces you to some of the important literary terms or technical vocabulary used in reading literature. The goal is to make you familiar with the right language for talking and writing about a work of literature and to teach you how to use this language in your own reading and writing.
This book takes you further into your study of literature by guiding you to use suitable vocabulary to actually talk and write about a work of literature. After walking you through a discussion of each element, Notes on Faceless gives you practice in writing about Faceless in particular and literature in general.
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The Teller of Secrets (Ouida Edition)
In this stunning debut novel—a tale of self-discovery and feminist awakening—a feisty Nigerian-Ghanaian girl growing up amid the political upheaval of late 1960s postcolonial Ghana begins to question the hypocrisy of her patriarchal society, and the restrictions and unrealistic expectations placed on women.
Young Esi Agyekum is the unofficial “secret keeper” of her family, as tight-lipped about her father’s adultery as she is about her half-sisters’ sex lives. But after she is humiliated and punished for her own sexual exploration, Esi begins to question why women’s secrets and men’s secrets bear different consequences. It is the beginning of a journey of discovery that will lead her to unexpected places.
As she navigates her burgeoning womanhood, Esi tries to reconcile her own ideals and dreams with her family’s complicated past and troubled present, as well as society’s many double standards that limit her and other women. Against a fraught political climate, Esi fights to carve out her own identity, and learns to manifest her power in surprising and inspiring ways.
Funny, fresh, and fiercely original, The Teller of Secrets marks the American debut of one of West Africa’s most exciting literary talents.
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The Thing Around Your Neck
A dazzling story collection from the best-selling author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists, “one of the world’s great contemporary writers” (Barack Obama).
In these twelve riveting stories, the award-winning Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explores the ties that bind men and women, parents and children, Africa and the United States. Searing and profound, suffused with beauty, sorrow, and longing, these stories map, with Adichie’s signature emotional wisdom, the collision of two cultures and the deeply human struggle to reconcile them.
₵80.00The Thing Around Your Neck
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Jungle Dance
Jungle Dance is a euphemism for a myriad of issues, roles, relationships and routes. It is a picture of what the corporate world is – challenging but rewarding also. It captures feelings of despondency, rejection and confusion interlaced with the triumphs, friendships and love that two women experience in their corporate journeys.
“Steeped in realism, yet fictional, emotional pet detached, almost biographical but not exactly that, a mishmash yet lucid – that’s what you get when you get an astute and observant corporate person doing a foray into fiction. You get real life drama in an imaginative narrative. Come let’s dance in this jungle of words.” – Nana Awere Damoah, Writer/Engineer
“Petra takes on an uncommon theme like the corporate world and tells a story from the lenses of her own experiences. This is a fictional work that ends up being real, motivational and romantic!” – Ama Pratt, Broadcast Journalist
“Riveting and gripping. A complete story about life in the corporate world and its vicissitudes — told with the sense of African love for family. A quintessential modern African story.” – Yaw Ofosu Larbi, Broadcast Journalist
₵55.00Jungle Dance
₵55.00